As pictures emerged of him looking frail and walking with the help of a cane, movie icon Burt Reynolds admitted he "didn't fear dying".

The legendary actor, whose good looks and charm made him one of Hollywood's most popular actors as he starred in such films as Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit, passed away on Thursday aged 82 after suffering a heart attack.

Two and a half years earlier, a frail Reynolds gave a series of interviews to promote his memoir, and spoke candidly about his mortality.

“I don’t fear dying," he told the Mirror.

The Hollywood icon pictured in May 2015 (Image: Splash)

“I talk to God every night. I just think of the luck I’ve had. I’d like my epitaph to be, ‘He had a hell of a good time and he was a good friend’."

He added: “The only thing I fear is getting sick and being a bother to people.”

Reynolds also revealed he'd been leaving behind an unusual heirloom.

“It’s beautiful­ hair but it’s not mine,” he said as he pointed to his famous wig.

With Robert DeNiro and Chevy Chase at the 'Dog Years' premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival (Image: Splash News)

“When I die they’ll find this beautifully dressed man with this beautiful­ hair.

“They’ll say, ‘Well, he left a note – ‘Pass this to his brother, he needs it badly.’”

After years out of the spotlight, his frail appearance and reliance on his cane grabbed the attention of his lifelong fans.

He said his discomfort was down to doing so many stunts throughout his film career.

Burt Reynolds in Love and the Banned Book, 1970 (Image: CBS)

"I did all my own stunts, which is why I can’t walk very well now," he told Jonathan Ross.

"At certain times in the morning I regret it, trying to get out of bed. I can point to certain places and know it’s from certain pictures."

In a statement released after his death, the actor's niece Nancy Lee Hess acknowledged he had a history of health issues, but called her uncle's death "totally unexpected."

The Hollywood actor aged 17

In 2009 he had surgery on his spine and the following year he underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery. He also struggled with prescription pain medication.

At the peak of his career, Reynolds was one of the most bankable actors in the film industry, reeling off a series of box-office smashes until a career downturn in the mid-1980s.

He rebounded in 1997 with an Oscar nomination for his supporting role as a porn director in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights - a role Reynolds despised - and won an Emmy for his role in the 1990-1994 television series Evening Shade.

Pitured in April 2016 (Image: Getty)

Reynolds, who was set to appear next summer in the all-star cast of director Quentin Tarantino's next film, died on Thursday (Image: Getty)

With his trademark mustache, rugged looks and macho aura, Reynolds was a leading male sex symbol of the 1970s.

He famously appeared naked - reclining on a bearskin rug with his arm strategically positioned for the sake of modesty - in a centerfold in the women's magazine Cosmopolitan in 1972.

Reynolds' personal life sometimes overshadowed his movies, including marriages that ended in divorce to actresses Loni Anderson and Judy Carne and romances with Sally Field and Dinah Shore, among others.

Reynolds cited director John Boorman's Oscar-nominated 1972 Deliverance as his best film and said he regretted that the hoopla from his Cosmopolitan appearance detracted from the movie that made him a star.

Another of his memorable performances was that of a former pro quarterback who lands in prison and assembles a team of convicts to play the warden's squad of brutal prison guards in 1974's The Longest Yard, directed by Robert Aldrich.

While some of his performances were critically praised, others were ridiculed, particularly in the bloated action comedy Cannonball Run II, a sequel to his financial success The Cannonball Run (1981).

He also starred in the notorious 1975 musical flop At Long Last Love, a film so atrocious that director Peter Bogdanovich publicly apologized for making it.

Reynolds turned down some notable roles, including Han Solo in Star Wars, which went to Harrison Ford; the title role in a James Bond film; and the astronaut in Terms of Endearment that Jack Nicholson turned into an Oscar-winning performance.

Burt Reynolds in the 1960s (Image: Getty)

Reynolds said in 2012 that he regretted some of his film choices. "I took the part that was the most fun - 'Oh, this will be fun.' I didn't take the part that would be the most challenging," he told Piers Morgan.

The actor was due to appear with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie and Al Pacino in Tarantino's upcoming period drama "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," set in 1969 Los Angeles around the time of the Charles Manson murders.

According to Variety, production began this summer but Reynolds had not been expected to shoot his scenes until the end of this month. The film is slated for release next August.